July 26, 2010

"The Bookstore" Date

I love, love, love to read!! So much so, that a particular book was my inspiration for one of my previous dates, the “Choose Your Own Adventure” Date.

My husband, on the other hand, would rather do anything else instead of reading! Reading is definitely not something he would choose to do for fun.

Most of the dates I have posted so far have been pretty crazy….meaning, you would have to have an *extrovert* type of personality to do them. These dates are perfect for us because we are both such extreme extroverts ourselves. I decided I would like to tone things down a notch, plan a more calm and relaxing date, and take my husband to one of MY favorite places….a bookstore! Of course, I would have to add in some creative touches to make sure he enjoyed the date as much as I would. (I received some great inspiration here, here, here, and here.)

Yeah…he wasn’t too thrilled at first! {lol} BUT – all of that was going to quickly change! We then headed off to a bookstore – I chose Barnes & Noble mainly because they have wooden chairs, armchairs, & couches scattered around the store. When choosing a bookstore for your OWN date….I would suggest keeping that in mind! Those little nooks are perfect meeting spots for this date!

Once we were there, we found a cozy little spot and I presented him with the FIRST of two “Task Cards”. There were three tasks that we both needed to complete before meeting back at our cozy spot.

#1 - Visit the COOKING section & chose a recipe that you would like to make for your spouse.

#2 – Visit the MAGAZINE section & find a quiz in a magazine that you and your spouse could do together.

#3 - Visit the CHILDREN’S section & find a book that was a favorite when you were a child or that holds a special memory for you…and read them to each other when you meet back up.

Yeah…he wasn’t too thrilled at first! {lol} BUT – all of that was going to quickly change! We then headed off to a bookstore – I chose Barnes & Noble mainly because they have wooden chairs, armchairs, & couches scattered around the store. When choosing a bookstore for your OWN date….I would suggest keeping that in mind! Those little nooks are perfect meeting spots for this date!

Now, you can do this two different ways! You can give each other 30 minutes and split up…meeting back at the designated spot when the time limit is over….OR you can just go together to each section, find the different books/magazines, and meet back at the spot. We chose to do the second option.

Good thing we did…since we could barely hold in our laughter when we discovered that our rival universities had COOKBOOKS!! I am a BYU alumni and Jamie is a HUGE Ute fan….

Here was the recipe I picked out:

Here is the recipe that Jamie picked out:

Next stop…..the Magazine section! This was a tricky one! It was harder than I thought to find quizzes in the magazines. If you also have a hard time, you can adjust that task to just finding a great article to share with each other. I found plenty of sizzling articles to share with him in Cosmopolitian and he found awesome photography tips to show me in Popular Photography.

(BTW – notice how AMAZING the pictures are in this post!?! My birthday was this month and Jamie picked up on the million and one hints and bought me a FABULOUS camera! ….thus his sudden interest in photography!! He wanted to make sure his investment was the best option out there. LOL)

And then onto the Children’s section…SO much fun! Here are our picks! Mine is “Where the Wild Things Are” and his was “The Berenstain Bears – In The Dark”.

Now…confession time! We had SOOOO much fun doing this, that we ran out of time to do the other task card! We spent SO much time at each section having fun talking, sharing articles/finds, and laughing…that we completely lost track of time! It was such a hit with my husband that he insisted that we return the next day to finish the date. Remember…this is the husband that does not like to pick up a book and read for fun!

Day TWO:

The tasks on the second card were…

#1 – Visit the JOKE section and pick out a HI-LA-RI-OUS joke to share with your spouse.

#2 – Visit the TRAVEL section and find a picture or information on a place you would like to visit someday.

#3 – Visit the POEM section and find a poem that describes the way you feel about your spouse.

The “Joke Task” took us for-ev-er! We could not stop sharing jokes with each other and laughing!! One joke each was just not enough for us!

The dream vacation task was really neat! I learned something NEW about Jamie! I always knew he had a thing for history and ruins, but I never knew he wanted to travel to Peru!! If you click on the picture below, you may be able to see the breathtaking picture he is holding up of an ancient civilization in Peru.

Where do I want to vacation? HAWAII!!!!

Our last task ended the date on a super romantic note! Sharing lovey-dovey poems out of some poem books we found. Great way to top off a wonderful date!

The actual date cost us absolutely NOTHING! Free entertainment for two nights in a row! Jamie actually told me afterwards that he would love to go to our local library and just sit in the children’s section and take turns reading our favorite books! (WOW! Have I “converted” him to believe in the wonders of reading?) He also mentioned that others who do this date could have a “WILD CARD” task….meaning that the person planning it could ask their spouse to make up a task on the spot that the spouse would really enjoy. Like something sports, self-help, fishing- related, etc.

One more nice thing about doing a date in a bookstore….well, a BIG bookstore…is that you can grab a cup of cocoa and a pastry at their “in-house” eatery to snack on during your date!

If you decide to go on this date….make sure you plan on it taking at LEAST 3-4 hours!! I promise you will have plenty to do…even if you are not a reader! {Wink, Wink}

If You LOVED this post, you’ll definitely fall in love with the many exclusive posts we have on Diva Central! These aren’t found ANYWHERE on our site and are some of our BEST ideas!! Sign up today and start a one week FREE trial that includes a 7-Day Love Quest!

Recent Comments

74 Responses to “"The Bookstore" Date”

What a fun idea! My husband and I actually have a date night every Saturday. After cheap Mexican food (just because we love it) we head to Barnes and Noble, grab a drink and head out. I like this because we would have to connect back with each other. I think my husband would like this, although he does get lost in perusing the books.

I downloaded the 4 share software and when I clicked on the link to download the invite and list for the Bookworm date (great idea!) I receive this message ” The file link that you requested is not valid.” Is there another place I can get copies of these? Thanks for all of your hard work!!

This is the cutest idea ever!! My husband actually love going to the bookstore, but I am thinking that going with an objective would be really cool too. I got the same thing though that Amy got with the whole “The file link that you requested is not valid.” Is there any another way to get a copy of these cards? Thanks!

Hey Heather! All of the files are saved on my desktop at my home in Vegas. I am in California for three more weeks. When I get back home….I will upload those files to our website again. Sorry about the delay. Glad you like the idea!

Very fun twist on a bookstore date — I love it. Unfortunately we don’t live close to a B&N anymore but we used to do this date every once in awhile, although we didn’t chose things to compare which sounds fun! Normally we just would go, wander together a bit and then separately (I hate Sci Fi and that’s hubby’s section) then have coffee and cheesecake! …. can’t wait to see if I can tweak this to a smaller store …

Thank you so much! This date sounds like a bunch of fun! I’m giving my husband a bunch of preplanned dates for the year for a Christmas gift, and your post just made it so much easier for me. Thanks for sharing!

I set this date up last night. We had BBQ for dinner, then afterwards I gave him the card to start off the date. But when we arrived at the bookstore, we discovered it had recently closed. So instead we found a comfy-ish couch nearby and decided to do all of the tasks using our phones. We had so much fun sharing recipes, jokes, poems and all of the other things. It was a great alternative since bookstores are becoming rare finds with the invention of the ebooks. Can’t wait to try another date! i already have printed off some printables for future dates, and am making them on cardstock to share with my girlfriends, with the link to the various posts here to get the directions!

I was wondering about your task cards. What program were they written in? Is there anyway I can have the original file to make some more with different tasks? We have loved this date, and would love to make some other tasks on the cards. Thanks so much for your wonderful site and for strengthening marriages around the world.

Hi Cari! I used Photoshop & with this date being from so long ago, I don’t think I have the original jpegs that I used to create the printables. I would suggest downloading my printable & then erasing the tasks in a photoshop program so you can put in your own. Good luck! {BTW – I bet if you just wrote the new tasks on a piece of paper, your husband would love it just as much!} XOXO

My husband and I used to go to Borders on date nights before they closed. This would be awesome to do to get that old familiar date night back!

We have done something a little similar. In the book “Songs in the Key of Solomon” by Anita Renfroe, she has an activity to find the most quirky classified ad in the Sunday paper. We had TONS of fun with this, and it was a great afternoon activity that brought lots of laughter!

Love.love.LOVE. I’m going to do this for our anniversary! So meaningful and can be repeated with additional ideas! I’m going to add: find a fashion magazine and pick out your favourite “look” for you AND your spouse

BUT just to let you know that Barnes & Noble no longer provides those comfy chairs in the random areas you talked about so the date has to be done on your feet or sitting on the floor…and yes I have sat on the floor to look at a magazine before

This sounds so fun! My hubby and I actually both LOVE the bookstore already. (Usually for our anniversary, we go out to eat – and then to Books-a-Million.) But these task cards sound like a great way to get some added interaction going on.

I just wanted to tell you that I love that this is with the January Love Calendar! Instead of a book store, because we are in a small town… we are going to use the Public Library!!! So there is that option for small town gals!!

I have to say that I really enjoyed this date with my husband. My husband is not a reader but he really did have a good time reading through things. Instead of us going to a bookstore we went to our library.